


theoretically

by carolee_sea



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Coffee Shops, Crime Fighting, Eventual Romance, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mark Lee (NCT) as Spider-Man, Mutual Pining, Socal, fun times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-01-23 23:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolee_sea/pseuds/carolee_sea
Summary: Donghyuck launches an investigation to find out if his roommate is Spider-man. Mark tries to prevent him from finding out the truth, but he’s frankly quite terrible at it.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 49
Kudos: 587





	1. Donghyuck - he’s never around (the facts)

**Author's Note:**

> I was so excited to write this and I never thought I'd finish it but I did! :D  
If you came across this, hope you'll enjoy and have fun reading it!

“Theoretically, if your roommate was Spider-man, what would you do?” 

Renjun looked up from his note scribbling and squinted at Donghyuck. He closed his laptop with a snap, which echoed through the stagnant library. 

“You mean Mark?” he scoffed. 

“Nooo, it’s a completely hypothetical question. Like I’m just saying, what if, you know, you had a crime-fighting vigilante as a roommate? What what you do? Help them? Keep them out of trouble?” Donghyuck was really regretting opening his mouth now. 

“And why are you asking me... these theoretical questions all of a sudden?” Renjun twirled his pencil in his hand. Maybe it was an absentminded habit, but it certainly seemed calculated and intimidating to Donghyuck. You never knew with Renjun. 

“Just thought you needed a break from studying,” Donghyuck said easily, though his eyes were nervously trained on Renjun’s rhythmic pencil twirling. 

“Huh,” Renjun intoned, still looking deeply suspicious. 

Donghyuck took that as the end of that string of conversation. Even though Renjun was frankly terrifying, Donghyuck really wanted his opinion on the subject and tried again. “Okay, still theoretically speaking, what if your roommate was-” 

“I’d blackmail them,” Renjun interrupted thoughtfully, with an almost dreamy expression passing over his face. He set down his pencil. “Not many people know about their secret identity, right? So I would threaten to tell the media, with all the evidence I’ve procured, of course, and then make them run errands and do favors for me. It’ll be perfect.” 

A beat of silence.

“That’s not very nice,” Donghyuck finally managed. 

“I’m not very nice,” Renjun pointed out. Donghyuck pursed his lips, opened his mouth, and decided against it. Who knew what Renjun could do to him if he found out that Donghyuck saw him buying coffee for a hungover Jaemin last week. 

“So, you have a crush on West Coast Spidey?” Renjun continued. I’ll be honest with you, it’s a little cliche, falling for the superhero type, but-”

“What the fuck? I’ve never even _seen_ Spider-man!” Donghyuck cut in indignantly. 

“Oh, well that’s a shame. I haven’t either, I guess. Maybe someday.” Renjun shrugged, closing his books and thankfully letting go of the topic. “If we’re not going to study anymore, might as well go watch Jeno’s lacrosse game. I’m taking vids for a film project.” Donghyuck groaned but stood up to help Renjun shove all his stuff into his book bag. Donghyuck’s side of the library table had been cleared over fifteen minutes ago. 

“Speaking of people I’ve never seen,” Donghyuck said, “I never see my roommate around.”

“Ah, that again. The mysterious Mark Lee, huh? I saw him yesterday morning in class. Don’t worry, he’s still alive.” 

“That’s good I guess.” Donghyuck picked up his stuff, and Renjun started talking about lacrosse as they exited the library. 

Donghyuck returned to the dorms after ditching Renjun at Jeno’s lacrosse game. Sue him, lacrosse was boring as fuck and Donghyuck was sure (about 65% sure) that Renjun only went because he had a crush on Jeno or something. Because why else would anyone be interested in watching lacrosse?

He strolled down the acid-trip carpets at a leisurely pace. It was the weekend and not many students were around in the dorms, opting for the university shopping center instead. Smart. Better air conditioning, Donghyuck thought. Irvine was still subject to that dry California desert heat, even in mid-autumn. Despite the lack of college student, the air in the place was still musty, saturated with a scent that was smelly feet mixed with laundry detergent. The smell permeated the entirety of the long ass hallway until it seeped into the walls and turned them into a dirty off-white color. 

Donghyuck opened the door with a theatrical _bang!_ but of course no one was in the room to greet him. He sighed, dragging himself over to the beanbag chair in the corner and sinking down low into it. He stared at Mark’s side of the room as if that would make the other boy suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Mark’s bed was perfectly made as usual, covers pulled and tucked stiffly into the bed frame, not a single indent on an impeccably fluffed pillow. It was a metaphor, kind of. For Mark. Perfect on the outside, but who knew what he was hiding underneath everything? Even though Mark had excellent grades and was a very nice dude bro, he was a bit of a klutz. He was always covered in bruises or scrapes from tripping and falling. A memorable conversation (and one of the only) Donghyuck had with Mark was when Mark asked if he could “borrow” band-aids from Donghyuck’s first aid kit. Donghyuck said “gross, you keep them if you use them” and enjoyed Mark sputter in embarrassment for a few seconds. His little incidents happened time after time again, and now Donghyuck’s band-aid supply was running dangerously low. 

The thing was, Mark disappeared way too often. He didn’t have a job, nor was he anywhere near campus. He wasn’t the party type either. The first week was nice-- Mark had actually made an effort to talk to Donghyuck. They clicked easily, even if after a few weeks Donghyuck didn’t see him around as often. He did Nice Roommate Things, like keeping his stuff in his space, occasionally cleaning the room, taking out the trash, and leaving boxes of Pocky on Donghyuck’s desk with cheer-up notes. But as a month passed, it seemed like Donghyuck only saw Mark when he came around to clean up his wounds from tripping again. So Mark Lee remained largely a mystery. 

Donghyuck took it upon himself to find out more about his roommate. He subtly asked around for info and tried stalking Mark on social media. And that was when Donghyuck found out the only social media Mark has was an Instagram with five posts, latest dated back four years ago. In the end, both methods did not bear much fruit. 

But here are the facts Donghyuck did know: 

1\. Mark Lee was born in Canada.  
2\. He moved around the states a bit, New York and then California.  
3\. He has black hair, dark brown eyes, pale skin.  
4\. Is not a vampire.  
5\. Mark is a chemistry major.  
6\. Likes hot dogs.  
7\. Likes the milk tea in boba milk tea but not the boba.  
8\. Does not play lacrosse.  
<strike>9\. Is kinda cute</strike>  
10\. Okay, this list is getting kinda ridiculous.

Donghyuck groaned. It really said something about how pathetic he was that he would find his barely-there, shady roommate attractive. But there was that theory he had (dubbed SpiderMark), that Mark could be Spider-man. If true, it would explain of things. Why Mark disappeared so often. Why one night he hallucinated Mark’s voice outside the door at 2 AM arguing, “I don’t have a costume kink!” Why the so-called “West Coast Spidey” started patrolling less in Los Angeles around the same time Mark started college in Irvine. Unfortunately, there were some things that didn’t fit the narrative. Mark was clumsy, always tripping over his own feet. Spider-man was graceful, speedy, fast. Brave and almost recklessly so. Not like Mark, who was scared of loud noises and public speaking. 

He really did need to talk to someone about the whole SpiderMark thing. _Renjun maybe?_ Renjun liked conspiracies, so maybe Donghyuck could discuss it with Renjun some time. Some time when he could talk about Mark without Renjun being suspicious that he was nursing a huge crush on the other. Because that totally wasn’t true. 

_Was it?_


	2. Mark - took down a criminal but i’m scared of feelings (the city)

Mark swung his legs back and forth, heels thudding gently against the metal of the Metrolink train. It was 7 PM, sunset a bruised smear on the horizon, and he was on his way to downtown Los Angeles. He figured it was dark enough that no one would be able to see his face, especially with the speed of the train, so he took the mask off and felt the wind run cool fingers through his sweaty hair. 

A tunnel was coming up, and Mark quickly maneuvered himself to lay flat against the top of the train. A dizzying oscillation of lights rushed by, and the gaping maw of the tunnel roared loud in Mark's ears. The air whooshed back as the train exited the tunnel. Mark crouched on the top of the train, pulled on his mask again, and watched the glittering LA city skyscrapers move into view. With a whoop, he shot a web at a light pole ahead and leapt off, swinging his way to the city. 

After a panoramic swing around his favorite buildings, Mark hit the streets. The Arts District had a few suspicious alleys, but it seemed like the coast was clear tonight. It was relatively quiet all around, and Mark wasn’t going to be doing much it seemed. He had helped a few couples find restaurants or their evening shows. Dinner was a hot dog from one of the street vendors near the Novo. He wondered if he could catch a late night movie screening or even the tail end of a concert (security would recognize him and sometimes invite him in for free, perks of being Spider-man), but he still had Chinatown and Koreatown to patrol. 

A shouting match broke out at a restaurant near Chinatown, nothing serious. Mark watched for a bit to see if the fight would get physical but it didn’t; there were a lot of middle fingers aggressively flashed around though. 

There was another fight in Koreatown, but this time, it was in a dark alleyway and it looked like it would get violent. There were two men arguing loudly, posturing and pushing each other. One of them growled something in a guttural, low voice. Mark wasn’t sure if it was in Italian or Spanish, but it sure wasn’t Korean. 

“Hey, calm down guys!” Mark tried to project authority into his voice as he dropped in between them. The two men startled when they saw him, but their surprise soon morphed into even deeper scowls than before. 

“Not your problem, Spider-man,” the one who wasn’t speaking earlier said, in English. 

“We can talk this out, just-” 

The other man started forward impatiently, and Mark held out both hands to signal him to stop. 

“Get lost,” the man spit at him. 

Mark backed away slowly just to see what they would do. Immediately, knives were drawn and the men were charging at each other. Mark was incredulous. _Surely they wouldn’t be fighting weapons right in front of him...?_ At least they didn’t have guns. 

With two quick _fwips_, Mark’s webs twirled the knives out of the men’s hands. 

“Nope! We’re having none of that!” Unfazed, the men resorted to punching each other. Mark groaned and tried getting between them again to pry them off each other. 

“What’s your problem dudes!” 

One of them snarled a long stream of something in another language. Mark didn’t know if he was answering his question, but it didn’t look like it. He shoved a bellowing man off of himself as gently as he could. 

“Okay, if you’re not gonna tell me-” 

“... Need the money!...” 

“.... the drugs!...”

And that was enough information for Mark. He quickly blasted a combination of webs at the two, webbing them against the alley walls. They stopped shouting at each other and started shouting at him.

“I guess you were right,” he commented offhandedly to the man further from him, as he took out his phone to dial the police. “It isn’t my problem to deal with.”

Mark fiddled around on his phone for a bit while he waited for the police to arrive. His usual style was knocking the thugs out and leaving them for the police to find (like New York Spider-man), but the two men weren’t malicious enough for Mark to hurt by knocking them out. And he wasn’t sure what the extent of their crimes were, or if they even were criminals. When the officers finally came, it took an hour or so for the whole procedure to be dealt with. It turned out that the two men were in some kind of drug dealing ring, and they were promptly arrested and taken away by the police. 

The officers thanked him (they were friendlier than the ones from last week), and Mark decided all the action was enough for tonight. It was past 1 AM, and he still needed to get to his spot. There was no trouble on his way back through the city. 

Mark’s spot was on a hotel rooftop, quiet and secluded, overlooking the bright city lights. He had a hammock set up, and it was close to the heating unit so the place wasn’t too cold in winter. It was where he slept when he went on late night patrol and all the train lines had closed. If he had a morning class, Mark would catch the earliest Metro back, but he didn’t have any tomorrow. He was actually thinking of swinging around LA in the daytime for a bit. The hammock swayed gently as he pulled the covers over himself and sunk into sleep.

\---

Coffee always made Mark a bit jittery, but a bit of caffeine was good now and then, so Mark visited his favorite tea shop in the morning. There was a time when Mark was really into boba, but after a traumatic experience of choking on tapioca balls while drinking boba milk tea during patrol, he had less of the drink. Donghyuck always thought it was kinda weird of him and had been giving Mark suspicious glances lately. It wasn’t helping that Mark was out so often lately. Mark had seen Donghyuck a few times in the week when he snuck in through the window at 5 AM (thank god Donghyuck went to bed early and was a heavy sleeper), but the other boy hadn’t seen a peep of him in like a whole week. No, he was totally not avoiding Donghyuck. Donghyuck, his inexplicably gorgeous and cute roommate who Mark was totally not infatuated with. Not that he was emotionally constipated or anything, but it felt like Donghyuck was too out of his league to consider going for. He was a sociology major, and while Mark was busy trying to juggle Spider-man duties with school, Donghyuck did normal college student things like studying with friends and partying on weekends. He was also extremely kind and caring, despite acting brash. In fact, his entire friend group (which consisted of Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin) had hearts of gold, except maybe Renjun hid it rather well. Donghyuck’s place in Mark’s heart was cemented the moment he’d helped put band-aids on Mark’s leg the first week they met. 

_I mean, Spider-man is cool right? Everyone’s into superheroes. If he knew I was Spider-man, would he date me?_

Mark thanked the barista when his drink came. He heard some whispers from a group of high school girls in the corner. 

_“Ooh, it’s Spider-man.”_

_”Lowkey gross through. Sticky boi.”_

Mark sighed. His mentor Doyoung would get a kick out of that comment. Yeah, what was he thinking? Donghyuck would probably find Spider-man lame or something. Everyone was an Iron Man fan anyway, and all the comparisons of Mark to the original East Coast Spider-man weren’t helping much either. 

With a wave, Mark left the shop, amidst giggles from the group of girls. 

The city was still drowsy in the early morning, lethargic queues at breakfast stores and slow traffic on the streets. Mark did a few swings around the block to warm up and then moved on to other blocks. Not much crime in the morning, or any people who looked lost and needed directions. Maybe he could return to the dorms today?

As for his roommate situation... Mark couldn’t think of a way to operate without looking suspicious, and he was pretty sure Donghyuck was already suspecting something. And of course, Mark’s first instinct was to distance himself.  
Mark thought he had pretty good luck with roommates in the past two years. In freshman year he roomed with a crackhead named Lucas who was too high all the time to notice anything strange going on with Mark. And hell, those first few months of adjusting to the college life were horrible. Mark didn’t think he could’ve survived without Doyoung’s guidance. Sophomore year he roomed with Jaehyun, a nice dude who was over at his boyfriend’s apartment most of the time. The dorm room was basically empty the entire year.  
Junior year just had to be the year where Mark got a difficult roommate to deal with. And why’d he have to be so cute too? Every time he snuck in late, Mark tried to avoid staring at Donghyuck’s sleeping form (because that’s creepy), but Donghyuck’s caramel-brown hair just looked so irresistibly soft against the pillows. Mark’s mind flashed back to the guidebook Doyoung had gifted him when he had first started college. Rule 1 of things not to do in college: develop a crush on your roommate. Oops, failed that one already. 

Mark buried his face in his hands out of embarrassment and almost shot a web up his nose. He let out a yell of frustration as he fell from a ledge, catching the balcony of another building, webbing whisking him up safely. _Catch and release._ A pigeon startled as he landed next to it. Maybe he could swing by Santa Monica to clear his head. The beach was pretty nice to visit on weekends. Lots of people, lots of crime to watch out for. It was so easy, to run away from all his problems. And it was so much easier to avoid Donghyuck than check up on him, ask how he was doing. Mark was a coward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading through! Entire fic is finished but I'll be updating the rest in intervals :)


	3. Donghyuck -  not a tarot card reading (consequences + bandaids)

Donghyuck had been alternating between essay writing and watching Spider-man videos on YouTube when he heard a knock on the door. 

“Who’s it?!” he yelled, but the knocking continued and didn’t stop. 

Cursing, Donghyuck stumbled to the door and opened it. He swore it was shaking slightly from all the knocking, which was becoming more and more forceful. 

“Hey,” he scowled at the two students in front of him. 

It was Chenle and Jisung, two very annoying freshmen who somehow managed to weasel their way into living in an upperclassman dormitory and not the freshman one. To Donghyuck’s annoyance, they were both taller than him. Notorious for dyeing their hair bright colors, Jisung was currently sporting a bright powerade blue haircut while Chenle had a lilac color.

“Hi,” they chimed in unison. 

“What do you want,” Donghyuck said flatly. 

“So... We’re witches,” Chenle started, and Donghyuck thought _what the fuck, why is this happening to me, should’ve gone to town or even the lacrosse game_ but he was somehow drawn to finish listening to whatever weird thing they were going to talk about. 

“We wanted to test some of our new fortune telling magic on people, but no one’s around,” Jisung continued. 

“We knocked on every door on the first floor and second floor. You’re the first one we’ve found.”

“That’s cuz no one is in the dorms on the weekends, dumbasses,” Donghyuck cut in.

“You’re here,” Jisung pointed out. 

Chenle went on as if he didn’t hear them say anything. 

“We were wondering if you would like to participate in a magical fortune telling session. It’s free.” 

“No. No way. I have homework to finish-” Donghyuck started closing the door on the pair. 

But strangely it seemed like the hinges had jammed and the door wasn’t budging. Donghyuck tried pushing harder. 

“We understand you’re busy,” Chenle said sweetly, “and since this is an experiment, we’ll be paying you to participate.” 

“Fifty dollars,” Jisung added, smiling innocently. 

Donghyuck stopped trying to close the door. 

“Fifty? This isn’t a joke? You’re going to pay me for doing your stupid fortune telling thing?”

They nodded solemnly. Donghyuck could hear Jisung muttering _it isn’t stupid_ under his breath. Fifty dollars... that was a pretty hefty amount of cash. If that was the price to pay for taking part in Chenle and Jisung’s dumb magic experiments, Donghyuck was doing it. Free money was a good incentive and the freshmen were smart, Donghyuck thought reluctantly. 

“Alright, fine I’ll do it,” he said. Chenle and Jisung let out a silly little cheer. 

Donghyuck locked his door and followed Chenle and Jisung down the hallway.

“So... are we doing this in your room?”

“We should do it outside,” Chenle suggested. 

“No, I think inside is- you know what, never mind, let’s go outside,” Jisung agreed.

“What the fuck,” Donghyuck articulated, but he reluctantly followed the pair out of the dorms anyway. 

It was sweltering, and the back of Donghyuck’s neck was slick with sweat and burning from the sun. 

“I hate this,” he said. 

“Your fifty dollars will be venmoed to you at the end of this session,” Chenle reminded him. 

They were sitting on a pink blanket on the grass outside, about two feet away from the shade of a tree. Why they weren’t underneath the shade was beyond Donghyuck’s understanding. Chenle and Jisung had adamantly protested when Donghyuck suggested moving, saying that their “magical senses” told them that being under the sun was the best for practicing clairvoyance. Donghyuck was sure they just wanted him to suffer. 

“This isn’t your typical fortune telling,” Chenle warned. “It will be nothing like what you’ve ever seen before.”

Whatever they were doing, it didn’t look too impressive at the moment. Jisung was messing around with some wooden sticks while Chenle was stalling. 

“Preparations are done.” Jisung finally turned away from his pile of sticks. He leaned over to whisper (loudly) in Chenle’s ear. “We’re doing the cards too.” Chenle nodded in understanding as Jisung whipped out a pack of cards seemingly out of nowhere. 

“Tarot cards?”

“No, these are more special,” Chenle replied, as Jisung revealed a deck of standard playing cards. 

Donghyuck futilely tried fanning himself as the pair did their thing. Chenle and Jisung looked unaffected by the heat. In the blink of an eye, the wooden sticks and cards were all spread out evenly before him. 

“With your eyes closed, choose three sticks and four cards,” Jisung instructed. 

“Be sure to keep your mind blank,” Chenle added. 

Donghyuck did so, and somehow the whole thing didn’t feel as stupid as it did before. There was a certain anticipatory gravity in the air now. 

When Donghyuck opened his eyes, he could see that the sticks were multicolored. There may have been lettering on the sides, but Jisung snatched them away before Donghyuck could decipher any words. For the cards, he had chosen a queen of hearts, two of clubs, seven of diamonds, and four of spades. Chenle took away those away too. 

The pair put the sticks and cards together and scrutinized them. 

“Ooh,” they chimed together. 

Donghyuck didn’t like this feeling of suspense, the whole thing was _dumb_. 

Chenle started talking. “Looking at this spread, we are currently conferring with our spirits to figure out the main underlying message in these objects-”

“You’re going to have a terrible week,” Jisung said in a hushed, dramatic tone. “See here? This is-” 

“You’re just making this up, aren’t you?” Donghyuck said flatly. 

“Noooo,” Jisung said. 

“This here means you’re going to get hit by a car.” Chenle pointed vaguely at the two of clubs card. His eyes were glazed over.

“Bad things will happen to you.”

“Very bad.”

“You’ll get mugged after a party.”

“You’ll have this empty feeling inside you, like you’re missing something but don’t know what.”

“This card means you’ll find something that you’ve been missing-”

Donghyuck threw his hands up. “Those are two contradicting statements!”

“Stop breaking our connection with the spirits!” 

“There was something else I felt. Something good. But I can’t remember it now,” Chenle said, still looking slightly dazed. Then he glared at Donghyuck. “Because you interrupted.”

“It was pretty important too,” Jisung grumbled. 

Donghyuck ignored them. He totally did not feel a stab of guilt or trepidation for his actions. “This is so fucking dumb.” 

Jisung looked positively furious, like he was going to jump up and start attacking Donghyuck, but Chenle held him back. He looked disapprovingly at Donghyuck. 

“Well then, I guess we will just give a summary of our findings and end the session here.” 

“You sound like a research paper.”

“Basically, you’re going to-” Jisung spit out, but stopped and winced as Chenle gripped his shoulder. 

“You’re going to have a rather horrible week. And it’s going to start soon. However-”

Chenle had that dazed look in his eyes again. Jisung looked the same. Donghyuck felt a chill down his back despite all the heat and convinced himself if was just evaporative cooling of his sweat. 

They blinked after a freakishly concerning few seconds, eyes clearing. 

“Now starts your week of hell.” Jisung grinned wickedly, cackling as he got to his feet and ran away. 

“It’ll be okay,” Chenle assured Donghyuck. His smile was less sinister than Jisung’s, bright and radiant with an almost holy quality. “There’s a silver lining, apparently.” Then he ran off after Jisung. The sticks and cards were left scattered on the blanket. 

Donghyuck slapped water onto the back of his neck and arms to relieve himself of the burning. Well wasn’t that a colossal waste of time. At least he got the fifty dollars. The money had been transferred to him seconds after Chenle and Jisung had disappeared. 

As he clicked to another video of Spider-man swinging around glittering LA skyscrapers, Donghyuck quickly forgot about his week of hell. 

\---

“What the fuck,” Donghyuck whispered to himself next morning. 

He stared down at his midterm exam again. No way this was happening. He did not just wake up for an 8 AM class just to find out that he failed his test. A large red 58% stared back at him. 

“Dude, me too.” Jeno leaned over to peek at Donghyuck’s paper, flashing his own score as well. 42%. Well, at least Donghyuck did better than Jeno. Although that wasn’t much consolation. 

“Oh congrats Jaemin! Nice one!” Jeno turned to Jaemin, who was gesticulating wildly about his B-. 

“How was your lacrosse game,” Donghyuck asked Jeno emotionlessly, still spacing out from his failure. 

Jeno beamed at him. “Pretty good. We managed to win somehow.”

Donghyuck and Jaemin both congratulated him, Donghyuck with considerably less enthusiasm. 

“Did you see Renjun? I think he went,” Jaemin said. 

“Yeah! He got a lot of video footage, but all of it was of me.”

“He’s like that,” Jaemin laughed. 

The professor started talking in front. 

“Hey man,” Jeno smiled at Donghyuck. “Don’ worry bout it too much, we still have finals to raise our grades.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Donghyuck was still dejected. 

Class ended and Donghyuck returned to the dorms. 

The room was empty as usual when he walked in. Donghyuck flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering whether to cry or not. Then came a crash from the suite bathroom and Mark’s distinct voice cursing indignantly. 

Donghyuck sat up. “Mark?” he called out hesitantly. 

“Yeaahh? Oh heeyy, Hyuck!” came Mark’s disembodied voice. 

“You doing okay?”

“Yeaaahhh, I’m fine.”

Donghyuck returned to his previous position, trying to hear what was going on the bathroom. There were a few more bangs and curse words. Donghyuck was starting to feel concerned. He wondered if he should check in on Mark. But what if he wasn’t... decent?

“Hey do you have any more of those band-aids?” Mark called from the bathroom, head peeking out from behind the door. His hair wasn’t wet, so he was probably not naked. _Wait, band-aids, band-aids = Mark is hurt...?_

Donghyuck walked over without replying. 

“What happened to you?” he asked, grabbing Mark’s arm before he could hide it. There were new gashes on the pale skin and cuts along the forearm, as if Mark scraped against something rough. A new bruise was blooming along the edges of the wound. 

Mark groaned as Donghyuck stared at him incredulously. 

“I fell, okay? I’m super clumsy.”

“Okay fine, that makes sense,” Donghyuck conceded, remembering all the times Mark tripped over his feet or accidentally slipped on the stairs. He sighed. 

“You’re okay though, right?”

Mark blinked, surprised that Donghyuck let it go so easily this time. “Yeah, I’m good.” He looked down at his arm. Which Donghyuck was still holding. “Uh-”

Donghyuck quickly let go. 

“I’ll try finding something.”

In the end, Donghyuck found a few very rumpled Hello Kitty band-aids in the deep recesses of his backpack. 

“Hope these work,” he said, and Mark nodded grimly. 

Mark thanked him profusely as Donghyuck applied the band-aids to the cuts, already cleaned up in the bathroom. He tried to press them on as gently as possible. Mark, to his credit, didn’t even wince once. 

Donghyuck was thinking about starting up a conversation, maybe with some small talk. How was Mark’s day going? Well, he took a pretty bad fall, so probably not so well. _Maybe I should ask him..._

“So how was your day? I hope better than mine,” Mark spoke up, as Donghyuck smoothed out the edges of the last band-aid. Wow, okay, so Donghyuck didn’t have to start the convo now. _How was my day? I failed my midterms... shit, Mark will think I’m so dumb if I say that..._

Donghyuck’s mind was still scrambling for answers when Mark’s phone gave a violent vibrate on the desk. Mark picked it up and his eyes scanned the text, presumably, widening slightly.

“Gotta go, sorry Hyuck, thanks for everything.” Mark rummaged around a giant purple duffel bag on his bed that Donghyuck hadn’t noticed before. He seemed to be in a rush to leave. 

_Girlfriend?_ Donghyuck thought.

“Huh?” Oh shit, apparently Donghyuck had said it aloud. 

“Erm, not really. Don’t swing that way,” Mark said absentmindedly as he walked towards the door, handling his giant duffel bag with ease. He smiled at Donghyuck and was out before he could process the words. 

Donghyuck gaped after the closed door and whipped out his own phone. Time to call his best friend. 

“Renjun,” he said urgently, after stabbing his finger on the first person on speed dial. 

“What,” came a flat voice. “You know I hate phone calls. The government could be listening in on us any time.”

“They could be reading our texts too,” Donghyuck pointed out, crawling onto his bed. 

“Fine, what is it.”

“Theoretically, if you just found out your roommate is gay, how would you react?”

Dead silence from the other end. 

“Mark Lee? ... I knew that already.”

“What?” 

There was an explosion. 

“No! What the fuck! He’s gay? Mark Lee?! He acts like the straightest person ever, what the actual fuck!” Renjun shouted, sounding extremely agitated. 

“Wait, yeah, same.”

“Did he actually tell you it?”

“Well... I kind of said something about a girlfriend and he was like ‘I don’t swing that way’ or something.” Donghyuck chewed his lip. 

“Donghyuck.” Renjun’s voice was low, serious. “Do you know what this means?”

“Uhh, he’s gay? And single maybe?”

“No, this changes the status quo! It means that you-”

Renjun’s words were drowned out by a wave of static over the line.

“Renjun?” Donghyuck called loudly. The line cut out completely with a definite beep. 

Donghyuck sighed for the nth time and went back to contemplating his existence.


	4. Donghyuck- bad day continued (it gets better bby)

Donghyuck woke up to his room looking suspiciously bright. He wasn’t surprised to see Mark long gone; his elusive roommate was always an early riser. Groaning and rolling over, Donghyuck reached out for his phone, almost smacking a stack of papers off his desk. 

He blinked sleepily at all the notifications popping up on the screen. Then he saw the time. 

“Holy shit I’m late to class! And I have a fucking group presentation!” 

Donghyuck got dressed in record time, all the while muttering, “shit shit shit my group is going to kill me...” It didn’t matter if he did most of the work if he wasn’t there for the presentation. There were maybe two other people who actually knew what to say, no scratch that, only like one other person. Donghyuck was screwed. His group was screwed. 

A few hours later, Donghyuck was sitting at a cafe all alone, nursing a cup of coffee. He had missed the presentation by a long shot. His group had managed to stumble through the thing and muster up a barely passing grade. The only good thing that happened was that one of his group members took pity on him and convinced Professor Jung that he did most of the work on the slides.

Donghyuck spotted someone who looked familiar at the counter. The person turned around after speaking to the cashier, and lo and behold, it was Mark Lee. 

Somehow Donghyuck forgot about his woes and immediately brightened up a bit when he caught sight of his roommate. Mark was wearing a long-sleeved green turtleneck, presumably to cover up all the band-aids and scrapes on his arms, and boy was it a good fit. His black hair was slightly curled, especially the bangs which reached his eyebrows. 

Mark spotted him pretty quickly. 

“Donghyuck?”

Mark’s bangs dipped lower, and they framed his eyebrows in such a way that it made him look angry, but cutely so. 

Donghyuck gave a half-hearted wave back. Mark frowned, seemed to hesitate, then walked over and pulled up a chair across from Donghyuck. 

“You okay?” 

“I don’t know,” Donghyuck said miserably. He was past the point of caring what Mark thought about his intelligence anymore. “Theoretically, if you overslept and missed a group presentation that was worth like, a quarter of your grade, would you be fine?” 

“Oh. Um,” Mark articulated very coherently, looking alarmed. 

Mark’s name was abruptly called by the barista. 

“I-I’ll be right back.” His chair pushed back with a terrible screech as he stood up and hurried to receive his drink. 

“What’d you get?” Donghyuck asked when Mark was sitting across from him again. 

“Honey vanilla latte. I didn’t know they had decaf for it, but they do so I got it.” 

“Decaf? But isn’t the point of coffee to have caffeine?”

“Caffeine is pretty bad for me. Makes my senses go all wonky.” 

Donghyuck opened his mouth for another snarky reply, but Mark cut him off. Sorely by leaning in looking extremely concerned and hot whilst doing so. 

“Sorry that you missed your presentation. And I’m sorry if I disturbed you last night or something.” 

“What? Did you sneak in again last night? But no, it wasn’t you, you didn’t do anything.” 

“Oh. Okay. But if it makes you feel any better, I tripped again today.” 

“What! No! That does not make me feel better, Mark. Are _you_ okay? You should see a doctor because I think you have issues.”

“Issues?” Mark’s eyebrows shot up. 

“I mean, no offense but, do you have social anxiety or something? It’s like you’re avoiding me. And you know, I’d actually like to see you sometimes?” 

“You want to see me?”

“I mean, y-yeah?” Donghyuck sputtered. “You’re not in the dorm for like more than half the week! I don’t want to be all in your business if you don’t want to tell me, but I do want to know where you are.” 

“I’m um... get homesick easily, so I visit my parents in LA a lot. And I’m also doing research stuff with my chemistry professor. It gets busy.” 

“Okay...” Donghyuck was not convinced.

“But I’m sorry if you thought I was avoiding you! I do want to hang out with you more.”

_Oh my god, Mark wants to hang out with me?_ Donghyuck was going to say something stupid like _yes yes yes let’s hang out maybe kiss?_ or _go out with me I think you’re hot_ when Mark suddenly startled. 

“Hey guys, what are y’all doing?” Jaemin came into view. 

“Talking?” Donghyuck offered sarcastically. 

“Sorry to crash your date or whatever, but like, I was getting kinda lonely here.” 

“It’s okay, we’re not um... on a date,” Mark said. 

“Cool! So I’mma just join y’all.” 

Jaemin went to steal a chair from another table while Donghyuck and Mark sat there awkwardly. 

“So like, I’m planning a party this Friday night! It’s gonna be at my apartment complex, and like, some of the other tenants that go to uni are also opening their doors. So it’s gonna be like this massive super party!” 

“Nice...?” 

“Yeah, you’re both invited!” Jaemin beamed widely at them. 

“I’m in, I guess,” Donghyuck shrugged. _Nothing else to do on a Friday night._ “Who else is going?”

“Jeno, of course, and there’s gonna be a lot of seniors and graduate students there too. Johnny is one of the guys in my complex, and he might be DJing. It’ll be so lit.”

Donghyuck looked at Mark, who was looking between the two of them with an almost bewildered expression on his face. 

“Mark, are you going?” Donghyuck asked shyly. 

“Um, sure? I’ll have to check my schedule first though.” 

Jaemin made a noise of approval. 

“Hey, Hyuck? I have a class soon, gotta go.” Mark stood up, draining the rest of his coffee. Donghyuck tried not to look too disappointed. 

“Oh. Alright. See you around?” 

“Yeah. See you!”

With a wave, Mark was out of the cafe in a flash. 

Jaemin leaned in as soon as Mark as gone. “So, Mark Lee, huh?” 

“What are you talking about.”

“You guys aren’t dating?”

“Noooo, we’re not...... yet.” 

“Yet.” 

“Well hopefully.” Donghyuck sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. “I don’t know if it’s ever gonna work out. He’s never around.” 

“You say that like y’all’re married already.” 

Donghyuck could feel his face heating up. “Theoretically...” 

“You already are? Don’t let your dreams be dreams, bro, is what Jeno would say. And Rnejun would say something like, make it real cuz tax benefits or some shit. Well, good luck,” Jaemin laughed. “Are you staying here to do work or something?” 

“Well yeah, I have all my laptop and everything with me already. Because... class earlier....” Donghyuck miserably trailed off as he remembered The Presentation. 

“You don’t mind if I stay here too for a bit? I’m gonna leave in an hour though because Jeno has a lacrosse game.”

“Yeah, I don’t mind, but _another one_?” 

“Yep, Renjun’s also gonna be there filming or something.” 

“I feel like lacrosse is just a convenient plot device so you can have characters appear and disappear whenever you want, in order to push the markhyuck agenda. Because whenever Jeno has a lacrosse game, Renjun and Jaemin follow, leaving Mark and Donghyuck alone to do markhyuck things-” 

“What?” 

“What was I saying?” 

“I dunno, but why don’t we start doing homework.” 

A few hours later, after Jaemin had long gone, Donghyuck tipped back his cup to get the last few drops of cold coffee. It was a pretty productive working session, well, after Jaemin left that is. He quickly packed up his stuff and was out of the cafe. Tiredly slipping his backpack onto both shoulders, he stepped onto the pedestrian crosswalk and checked for any cars. Then Donghyuck berated himself for not checking for cars before he _fucking walked into the middle of the crosswalk._

A car was coming out of nowhere and Donghyuck just _couldn’t get his fucking legs to move_. It wasn’t coming too fast, there was still time to step back, get out of the way, but Donghyuck’s whole body was frozen. He stood there facing the vehicle hurtling upon him, eyes wide, when he heard a shout above him. Suddenly there was rough arm around him, a forceful tug, and Donghyuck’s feet were above the ground. He could feel someone’s hard body against him. Colors were a whirl in front of his eyes, but he could tell that the person holding him was making a sharp turn. He felt a jolt and the mysterious stranger cursed. They had slightly clipped the car that was about to run Donghyuck over seconds ago. 

Donghyuck wasn’t sure if he was screaming or anything, but he just squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his face into his savior’s shoulder. The material was strange, a sort of thick, textured spandex. They were still in midair, and Donghyuck had a feeling it was either some overgrown bird creature or LA’s friendly neighborhood Spider-man. 

“You’re okay, you’re okay.”

A spandex-covered hand was patting Donghyuck’s back reassuringly, and he realized that they weren’t flying around anymore. Solid ground, at last. Donghyuck opened his eyes and wobbled as he pulled away from Spider-man and dropped onto the floor, Spider-man supporting him. They were on a rooftop, which was pretty cool, if not for the fact that Donghyuck was terrified of heights. 

“Uhh...” Donghyuck turned to Spider-man. The vigilante was a bit shorter than he’d expected, almost around the same height as Donghyuck. He still had his mask on and the iconic red and blue suit, except the colors were darker, navy and burgundy. And Donghyuck was definitely not blushing at how the skin-tight material fitted the curves of the body so well. He could see how toned the legs were and _those biceps_-

Donghyuck suddenly realized that Spider-man was staring at him, probably waiting for him to speak or thank him or something. Or maybe Spider-man was injured? _Oh shit, he did hit the car earlier_. Donghyuck looked into the large outlined eyes of the mask. 

“Thanks but-” 

“No problem.” The voice behind the mask was gruff. Before Donghyuck could ask if Spider-man was okay because he was pretty sure they had impacted into the car and it could have hurt a lot and Donghyuck was so so sorry that he was dumb for not getting out of the way, the mysterious masked man had already swung out of sight. 

Donghyuck guessed Spider-man must have been busy or something, and that was fine with him. But there was just one little problem. _How the fuck was he going to get off the roof?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4th wall break! And also more of silver lining Chenle was talking about...


	5. Mark - the bathroom at 3 AM (reflections)

Mark was pretty ecstatic. His side wasn’t even hurting that much from crashing into the car from earlier when he saved Donghyuck. 

When he met up with Renjun a two other classmates in the evening for their Chinese project, Renjun was talking about how Donghyuck got saved by Spider-man, and of course, everyone got sidetracked (Mark included). 

“So, off topic, but my friend got saved by Spider-man today,” Renjun had started.

“No way!” 

“Apparently, he almost got run over a car when Spider-man came out of nowhere and carried him off to safety. It’s your roommate, Mark.” Renjun nodded at Mark. 

“Donghyuck?” Mark asked, acting dumb. He hoped he looked surprised enough. 

“Yep.”

“Did he get to talk to Spidey?” 

“Well, he says that he thanked him, but it seemed like Spider-man was in a rush, and my friend didn’t get to ask if he was okay.” 

“Wait what? Okay from what?” Mark asked, not pretending anymore. This was a new revelation. 

“According to Donghyuck, Spider-man hit the side of the car while trying to save him.” 

“Whoa, hope he’s okay.”

“I mean if Spider-man could rush off to do other things, seems like he’s fine.” 

More new info. Back then, Mark had left in a hurry because he thought Donghyuck was going to say “thanks but I didn’t need your help”. And now Mark was regretting leaving so fast. Donghyuck was actually concerned for him? Mark felt a swell of affection.

“Dude, but like, your friend is sooo lucky.” 

“Not really. After Spider-man left, he was stuck on the roof and had to call me to get the building owner to unlock the door,” Renjun said. 

Mark winced. Oops. He hadn’t meant for Donghyuck to get stranded on the roof and felt a slight twinge of guilt. Definitely could have thought through that whole interaction better. Mark was quiet as his group continued chatting.

“... pretty sure he has an obsession with Spider-man...” Renjun was talking. 

Mark reentered the conversation. “What?” 

Renjun turned towards him without missing a beat. “He’s been acting weird. Donghyuck. I know he thinks West Coast Spidey is cool, we all do, it’s a fact. But I’m like 70% sure he has a crush on him or something. His Youtube history’s all Spider-man stuff.” 

Mark’s brain short-circuited. “Youtube history?” 

“Well, he logged into my laptop and then forgot to log out. It’s free real estate. I get to leave weird comments on weird videos with his account whenever I want.” 

Mark tuned out the conversation again. _Donghyuck thinks Spider-man is cool confirmed. Donghyuck thinks_ I’m _cool. Wow. And he watches videos of me_. 

Even when his group finally started working on the project, Mark’s mind was wandering and he was going through all sorts of emotions. If he revealed that he was Spider-man, would Donghyuck be disappointed that it was him? His clumsy roommate? There was also the whole issue of revealing his secret identity to someone. Doyoung had warned him against it, saying that he should never do it to impress someone he liked. They could blackmail him or do all sorts of horrible things with the information. Regrettably, Mark didn’t know Donghyuck well enough. He could hang around him more to know him better, but Donghyuck was obviously suspicious of him already... 

“Yo Mark, dude, you okay? You look out of it.” 

One of his classmates clapped his hands in front of Mark’s face. 

“Uh... yeah, I’m fine.” 

“You know what? I think we’re good for today.” 

“Yeah.” His classmates started packing up and putting things away, readying to leave.

“We didn’t even do anything,” Renjun grumbled, but he was standing up as well. As he helped cleared the desk, Mark suddenly felt his “spider sense” tingling. 

Renjun’s laptop had somehow slid off the table. Quick as lightning, Mark’s hand shot out and grabbed it mid-air. 

“Wow, aren’t you fast,” Renjun commented calmly, as if his several hundred dollar laptop wasn’t just two seconds away from shattering on the floor. The way he was staring intensely at Mark was kind of unnerving. 

“Lucky catch,” Mark laughed nervously, handing Renjun his laptop. 

“Sure,” Renjun said, still staring at him. 

“You know,” Renjun started again, as Mark hurriedly packed up his stuff. “There’s something I wanted to ask you.”   
Mark gave Renjun a horrible grimace of a grin. “Yeah?” His voice came out too high and his heart was beating too fast. He had really slipped up back there. _Did Renjun figure it out?_

“Relax. I just wanted to ask if you knew anything about the fortune telling thing some freshmen are doing on campus.”

Mark restrained himself from letting out a huge sigh of relief. “Yeah, I do. If you’re looking for them, their names are Chenle and Jisung, and they’re in the same building as me. Floor below.” 

“Thank you. That’s very helpful.” 

“No problem. Were you going to do their fortune telling thing?” 

Renjun nodded. “I heard of it from Jaemin. Did you do it?” 

“Yeah, I did.” Mark was surprised that he kind of forgot about all of it. The strange witch duo said some disconcerting but very true things. But it was all kind of murky...

“Jaemin said it was very accurate. Was it for you?” They walked towards the exit together, voices slightly hushed. Mark was itching to get out of there. Renjun looked like he wanted to ask more questions.

“Well... I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.” 

After exchanging a quick goodbye, Mark walked away as fast as possible without seeming impolite. Renjun was catching on, he was sure of it. As soon as Mark turned the corner he slowed to a stop, head bent over, hands over knees, feeling the panic spread and take over his brain. He gasped for air, sucking in deep breaths and exhaling shakily. His vision was swimming in front of him and he could hear the noise on the streets so clearly around him, a car horn going off two blocks away. Squeezing his eyes shut, Mark willed the sensory overload to go away. He straightened up. Things were fine. Renjun hadn’t asked, and Mark was good at lying. Time for dinner, and then he could squeeze in another swing around LA.

\---

One thing Mark really liked about his dorm was that it was conveniently next to a tree. And the window opened relatively easily. Mark was back from another night patrol, and it was around 3 AM. A good time to sneak in campus, since it was a weekday. As stealthily as he could, Mark slid open the screen and glass, then climbed off the branches and squeezed into the room. It was dark except for the soft glowing of his roommate’s desk light. 

Another thing Mark really liked about his dorm was Donghyuck. 

Donghyuck was sitting in clear view of the window, slumped backwards in his chair, head at an awkward position. His chest was rising up and down steadily, breathing soft. 

“Hyuck?” Mark called out quietly, walking closer. 

Donghyuck didn’t stir. 

Mark felt his lips relax into a fond smile. Donghyuck must have been doing something and fell asleep without knowing it. Maybe it was the adrenaline from earlier in the day, almost getting hit by a car, or the group presentation he missed in the morning. 

He walked over and watched (non-creepily, he hoped) Donghyuck for a while. It really looked like his neck was hurting him in his sleep, so Mark made the executive decision to carry Donghyuck to bed. With one arm behind Donghyuck’s knees and the other cradling his head, Mark gently lifted Donghyuck from the chair, setting him onto the bed. He winced a little at the chafe against his still-healing cuts. Donghyuck sank down on the mattress with a little involuntary sigh. Tugging the covers from underneath Donghyuck, Mark draped them over Donghyuck’s body and tucked him in. After one last look at Donghyuck’s peaceful form, Mark quietly made his way to the bathroom. 

There were many benefits that came from having a suite bathroom, the foremost being that Mark could wash his suit in there without scuntity. Mark’s stints to the laundry room did not work, there always seemed to be someone in there no matter what time of day it was. Thankfully the last person who caught him with his Spider-man suit just thought he had a costume kink, which was a pretty bad assumption but no worse than the truth. 

Mark thought back to freshman year with a shudder. He had been washing blood out of his suit at 1 AM in the communal bathrooms when someone walked in, screamed, and nearly woke the whole hallway and the one below. Mark had gotten out of that one by jumping out of the thankfully open window (with his still-dripping-wet suit), aggravating his injuries and leaving the sink filled with bloody water. The next day, there were a bunch of rumors about the dorm being haunted, but at least no one had gone close to unearthing his secret identity. 

The things was, Mark did try living with Doyong for a while. Except Doyoung had a crap ton of one night stands coming over to his apartment on a regular basis, and Mark did not want to hear any of that again. Mark was glad Doyoung was “getting it”, but the walls were thin. Also, he was a student and Doyoung was a professor on campus, so that might’ve been weird. Better to have ghost rumors than professor-student relationship rumors. 

Sexual habits aside, Doyoung was nice and let Mark have free reign in the labs so Mark could restock on web formula whenever. The lie Mark told Donghyuck about doing research with Doyoung wasn’t exactly a lie; they did meet up to discuss new chemical combinations and develop new web formulas. While Doyoung didn’t know much about the suit, he did have connections, so a friend of his helped make a Spider-man suit for Mark. Mark didn’t know who it was, but he was grateful. Doyoung said that he didn’t tell the suit-maker about Mark’s real identity, which was a relief. 

Mark turned on the faucet and thrust his suit under the cold water. He pressed a dollop of soap into the water and began scrubbing. While the suit wasn’t bulletproof like East Coast Spiderman’s (courtesy of Tony Stark), the material was sturdy and not easily ripped. Bruises were still common, however, along with cuts and scrapes from falls. 

The first time Mark met Doyoung was in high school, a few months after the spider bite. Doyoung was the son of a family friend, and they were over for dinner. Mark had been just starting experimenting with his web shooters at the time. There were many accidents, and Mark came home with a multitude of cuts. Doyoung went into his room to get the first-aid kit, but the chemistry stuff that Mark forgot to put away caught his eye, and the rest was history. He was the first to figure it out, and Mark was terrified Doyoung would tell his parents, but it turned out Doyoung was really good at keeping secrets. He suggested Mark apply to the college Doyoung was teaching at, and with Mark’s grades it was easy to get in. Mark wasn’t exactly sure what his post-undergraduate plans would be yet, but chemistry was a fun field of study. But balancing Spider-man with schoolwork was difficult, even though Mark was doing pretty well so far.

Mark squeezed and watched the soapy water swirl down the drain. There were times he desperately wanted a normal life. He could still do it. Give up Spider-man, be a normal person with some freaky athletic abilities. No one would know except him, and Doyoung. Would Doyoung be disappointed, or would he understand? But Los Angeles needed him. The responsibility was too big, he _had_ to help protect the city. Just... how was he ever going to find a relationship with the mess of a secret identity he had?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mark is in a dilemma and he's very stressed. He's paranoid about people figuring out his secret identity but conflicted because he kinda wants Donghyuck to know...


	6. Donghyuck - renjun gets on the case (screenwriting 101)

Donghyuck was in for a shock when he found out that Renjun had somehow officially adopted Chenle.

“Why the fuck would he adopt _that_ gremlin?” he lamented to Jeno when he found out. The girl sitting in front of him at lecture turned around to give him a dirty look.

“They met one day and Chenle told him he was destined for greatness, apparently,” Jeno whispered. 

“That’s like, actual bullshit. No offense, but Renjun’s in linguistics. Well maybe he’s gonna invent a new language or something.” 

“I don’t think that’s how his major works, but I think they were referring to his film career.” 

“Sometimes I think Renjun cares more about his film minor than he does about his major.”

“Chenle also agreed to star in one of Renjun’s films. Did you know he used to be a child actor?”

“The more you know,” Donghyuck said dryly. 

“That fortune-telling thing he does with Jisung seems to be pretty accurate though. It’s been gaining popularity lately.” 

“What the fuck!” Donghyuck exclaimed. The girl in front of him whipped around to shush him loudly.

He dropped his voice. “Did you do it too?”

“Well yeah,” Jeno admitted.

Donghyuck thought back to his fortune-telling session with the strange pair. They said he was going to have a horrible week... shit, that was kind of true. Very true actually. Donghyuck was slightly disturbed. 

Professor Nakamoto called for everyone’s attention and pulled up a chart with their names organized into several groups. It was seminar time, and Donghyuck was not feeling it. It was even worse when he found out the girl sitting in front of him was in his group. She glared daggers at him for the rest of the class session. 

After leaving class and saying bye to Jeno, Donghyuck pulled up the article he had been reading earlier. The headline was in bold letters: **West Coast Spider-man helps LA Police!** There was a blown up picture of Spider-man posing with police officers, awkwardly standing with two thumbs up. The article was largely enthusiastic about Spider-man’s presence in SoCal, detailing many of the good deeds he’d done. Donghyuck had read quite a few West Coast Spidey articles in the past few days after Spider-man had saved him, but Spider-man rescuing a tiny kitten out of a tree was new. There was even a picture, and Donghyuck’s heart totally did not flip over a few times. Even with the mask covering his face, it was easy to tell that Spider-man was beaming widely as he cradled the kitten in his arms.

And Donghyuck was back to his Spider-man/Mark Lee dilemma. (SpiderMark?) Donghyuck had been thinking non-stop about his interaction with Spider-man that day. Something about the way that Spider-man disappeared so quickly that reminded Donghyuck of a certain Mark Lee. When he got back to the dorms that night, Donghyuck had resolved to stay up late to catch Mark Lee/Spider-man? (still unconfirmed) sneaking in. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure he had fallen asleep halfway through his investigation because he woke up the next day in his bed.

He was at crossroads again. Maybe it was time to swallow his pride and go to Renjun for help. Maybe Renjun wouldn’t buy his SpiderMark theory, but he was a sucker for a good love story. And well, having a crush on a superhero was cliche as fuck (Donghyuck could not fucking believe he’d gone and done it), but Renjun also loved dumb cliche tropes. Ever since the Baskin Robbins incident in junior year of high school, Donghyuck had sworn to never sell himself out again for Renjun’s screenplays again, but desperate times called for desperate measures. 

Renjun’s room was on the third floor of Donghyuck’s dorm building. Donghyuck worked himself up, ready to act as dramatically as possible. 

He pounded on Renjun’s door. When Renjun opened it, Donghyuck staggered and leaned against the doorframe. Renjun looked unamused. 

“Theoretically, if there was someone you liked but they’re too nice and too smart and _too good_ for you-” Donghyuck wheezed. “What would you do?”

Renjun considered Donghyuck for a few long, long seconds. 

“You’re so whipped,” he said helpfully, before shutting the door in Donghyuck’s face.

“Noooo Renjun,” Donghyuck fake sobbed, beating his fists against the door again. “Seminar today _sucked_. I had a bad, very bad, horrible day. I wanna talk, _let me in_,” he whined. 

“Ugh, fine, get the fuck in before you annoy the hell out of everyone on this floor.

Donghyuck mentally cheered and ducked into the room. They sat on the rug in the center of the room facing each other. It almost felt like high school again. Even back then, Donghyuck had been turning to Renjun all the time to bemoan about all the various infatuations he had while Renjun patiently talked him through them.

“I know what you’re here for,” Renjun said. His eyes were narrowed but there was a certain excitement in them. “And you’re gonna say it.” 

“Rennjuunnn...”

“Say it.”

Donghyuck sighed. “I have a crush on Mark Lee.”

“Your roommate.”

“My roommate.”

“Okay, I knew this was gonna happen, but spill.”

Donghyuck sighed but did his best gushing about Mark Lee, which wasn’t all that hard. He got to the point where he didn’t know if he was making up stuff or if he actually believed it. He trailed off when he saw the spark in Renjun’s eye that signified his investment in the potential relationship.

“Alright, so do you want my help with anything or do you just want to talk about it?” Renjun asked.

“Renjun,” Donghyuck said. “I’m going to be completely honest with you. The last time you tried to ‘help’ me with my relationships it did not go well. Case in point, Baskin Robbins incident.” 

Renjun ignored him. “Are you going to talk?”

“Yes yes yes, I’m getting there! First things first. I have a theory. You probably know it already but... I think Mark is Spider-man.” _There, it was out_. 

“I’m going to be completely honest with you. This.....this is the first time I think you’re right. I agree with you,” Renjun said, pretending to look shocked. 

“Fuck off.” Donghyuck was grinning, feeling the relief wash over him. Maybe he wasn’t completely paranoid yet. 

“It’s not that far-fetched. There is definitely something up with Mark. He’s almost never around campus in his free time,” Renjun explained. 

Donghyuck nodded vigorously. “That’s what I was thinking!” 

“He’s been pretty good at hiding it so far. But sooner or later, he’s going to slip. Or, you could force the confession out of him somehow.” 

They continued discussing the topic for the good part of an hour. Donghyuck felt something lift off his chest the more they talked. It felt good, confiding in someone. Despite being sarcastic and weird, Renjun was a solid friend. 

“Donghyuck, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but your life _excites me_,” Renjun said, with a faux awed look on his face. 

“What. Why.” Donghyuck had the creeping suspicion that he already knew what Renjun was going to say.

“Think about it. If Mark was really Spider-man, and you got together with him, it’ll be the most horribly cliche but amazing real love story of the century. You, a normal dumbass, falling in love with your roommate who turns out to be a secret superhero. _I fucking love it_.” Renjun had that dreamy look on his face again.

_Well_, Donghyuck thought. _At least he totally bought into the romance aspect of this whole thing_. 

“I’m feeling so... inspired,” Renjun proclaimed dramatically. “That I’m going to start on drafting a script right now.”

“Okay, so I can leave?” 

“Wait!” Renjun grasped Donghyuck’s arm before he could get off the floor. “Do you waive your rights?” 

“To what? Your romance story? Yeah whatever just change my name.” Donghyuck got to his feet. 

“The ship name is gonna be Markhyuck...” Renjun’s voice floated out of the room with Donghyuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my connector chapter! It was difficult to write but I think it's necessary and the story would feel incomplete without it.  
PS even I don't know what the Baskin Robbins incident is, but I imagine it being something like this: Donghyuck has a crush on the ice cream scooper from Baskin Robbins and Renjun tries (unsuccessfully) to get them together. Donghyuck embarrasses the hell out of himself and never goes into the store again.


	7. Mark - walk you home (the fastest quick change)

It was Friday night, and Mark was perched on a tree, still in the Spider-man suit. Mark had his spare clothes ready, but he was agonizing over whether to change or not. He wasn’t even sure if he should attend the party. Chances were that there was going to be loud music and Mark’s sensitive ears couldn’t handle it. He sighed. He really needed to get some kind of hearing device or ear plugs so he wouldn’t get screwed over by a loud gunshot noise someday.

Truth be told, Mark hadn’t ever attended a college party for more than five minutes. The first and last time was in freshman year when Lucas had invited him. The moment he walked in the door he had almost keeled over from the reverberating bass in the room. And from then on Mark had turned down all party invitations until no one really bothered to invite him to anything. It was fine by him, although he did get a little lonely sometimes. 

Mark continued staring at his phone, Jaemin’s address still displayed in bold letters. The screen flashed and Mark almost dropped his phone. It was a call from Jaemin. Mark picked up on the first ring. 

“Hello?” he said cautiously. 

“HEY MARK.” Jaemin was shouting into the phone, but the background noise was still nearly drowning him out. 

“Heyy, Jaemin? What’s up?” 

“WE HAVE AN ISSUE HERE.” 

“What is it?” 

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU.”

“You okay?” Mark said, louder. 

“YEAH! I’M FINE, KEEPING SOBER CUZ I’M THE HOST. GOTTA TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.” 

“Oh, nice! That’s nice of you to do.” 

“THANKS- OH HEY IT’S JENO, JENO SAY HIIIIII!”

There was no more voice on the other side, although Mark strained to hear anything through the loud club music. He assumed Jeno was saying something. 

“Hey... Jeno,” Mark greeted awkwardly, not knowing if he was still there. 

“JENO LEFT SORRY MARK!” And Jaemin’s voice was back. 

“It’s okay... Wait, I thought he had lacrosse practice on Fridays?” 

“YEAH BUT HE DITCHED,” Jaemin burst into a fit of giggles. It seemed that he was a little tipsy, maybe had a few shots. 

“Uhh, nice. Was that the problem you were talking about?” 

“OH! OH NO, IT WASN’T, I FORGOT!” Jaemin sounded a little agitated now. 

“It’s okay, what was it?” 

“DONGHYUCK JUST LEFT ALONE BUT HE’S LIKE SUPER DRUNK OR SOMETHING. I DON’T KNOW HOW MANY HE KNOCKED BACK BUT IT WAS A LOT!” 

“Donghyuck? What do you mean he left? He left the party?” 

“YEAHH DUDE HE JUST LIKE DISAPPEARED. BY HIMSELF. CHENLE SAID THAT HE SAW HIM WALKING OUT THE DOOR AND JISUNG SAID HE WOULD BE FINE BUT IDK BRO. HE LEFT HIS PHONE AND STUFF HERE TOO! CAN YOU LIKE CALL ME IF HE TURNS UP YOUR DORM?”

_Oh my god, just like Donghyuck to get into trouble again..._ Mark sighed. He would have to scour the area for Donghyuck, but thankfully he wouldn’t be going to the party after all. 

“MARK?” Jaemin prompted.

“Oh! Sorry! I’m not at the dorms right now.” 

“OH NO WHERE ARE YOU?” 

“Uhh..... chemistry labs,” Mark lied quickly. 

“OH NO! IT’S OKAY I’LL JUST CALL RENJUN. BYE!” He immediately hung up on Mark.

Mark quickly pocketed his phone and hurriedly shoved his backpack of spare clothes into the branches. With a loud rustling noise, he burst out from the leaves, swinging away to find Donghyuck. 

He swung over to check the vicinity of Jaemin’s house, and with his night vision, he quickly found a lone figure walking in the middle of the street. It was Donghyuck, alright, and he was rambling loudly in a mixture of singing and talking. 

Mark facepalmed as Donghyuck dramatically belted out the opening verse of the national anthem. It was embarrassing, in an endearing sort of way. Donghyuck was dressed for party, with tight ripped jeans and a flowy, kind of shimmery top. He’d even smeared on some dark eyeshadow, which would have looked positively sinful if he wasn’t stumbling around drunk. 

Donghyuck was teetering a little as he walked. Mark landed in front of him, and Donghyuck startled in surprise, rocking back unsteadily on his heels. 

“Whoa!” Mark caught Donghyuck’s wrist before he could fall backwards. “You alright?” Where are you going?”

Donghyuck blinked at him a few times, then a dopey smile bloomed on his face. “Spider-man!”

“Yep, that’s me.” 

“Take me home,” Donghyuck demanded. “Please,” he added. 

“Okay-” 

Donghyuck suddenly took his arm out of Mark’s graph and started striding forwards. 

“Uhh, D- what’s your name again? Where you going?” 

Donghyuck hummed. “Dorms? Spider-man come with me. So I don’t get mugged because fuck Park Jisung. Z-Zhong Chenle. Chenle not so much. Thanks for not letting me be crashed hit by car.” 

Mark cleared his throat. “You’re welcome.”

Donghyuck continued walking forward, which Mark noticed was _the wrong direction_.

“Don- dude.” 

For continuity sake, Mark asked, “Which way is your dorm?”

“That way.” Donghyuck pointed at the direction he was currently stumbling in. 

Mark sighed. “Okay...” He took Donghyuck by the shoulders and turned him around. “Let’s go back the right way.” 

“Yes, Mark.” 

Mark froze. 

“Mark is roommate,” Donghyuck continued. Mark didn’t dare breathe. “He is super nice. I like Mark. But he only likes band-aids,” Donghyuck finished sadly. 

Mark wished he could tell Donghyuck that he did like him. But they were in dangerous territory, and Mark didn’t want to say anything that could possibly give him away. 

“Spider-man, you know Mark?”

_Okay, he couldn’t avoid this one, but it was his best bet for dispelling any suspicions. Although, Donghyuck may not even remember the next day._

“Nope, haven’t met a Mark.” 

“Oh,” Donghyuck said. “You would like him. Lots of falling, gets hurt a lot. You could save him from falling.” 

“I-I’ll keep an eye out for him.” 

“Did Spider-man get hurt?” 

“If you’re talking about the car thing, no, I’m totally fine. Don’t worry about me.” 

“Hmmm, how...” 

“Yeah?” 

“How much does Spider-man get paid?” 

Mark barked out a startled laugh. “What? I don’t get paid.” 

Donghyuck frowned pointedly. “No pay? Spider-man... not a government worker... but... no pay?” 

“Yeah man. I do it because I want to.”

“But... health insurance?” 

“I have health insurance.” _Although I don’t really need it. Perks of super healing_. Mark was touched by Donghyuck’s concern though. 

Donghyuck was pensively silent, still frowning. They were the only two walking on the street, and Mark’s spider sense wasn’t sensing anything awry, so he relaxed a little. Under the streetlights, they finally arrived at the (correct) dorms, and Mark ushered Donghyuck into the building. 

“So, uh, where’s your room?” 

Donghyuck was strangely cooperative, now that he was indoors. “Second floor.” 

Mark didn’t trust Donghyuck to walk up the stairs, so they took the elevator in silence. Donghyuck was content to calmly blink at the door without a peep. 

When they arrived at the second floor, it seemed that Donghyuck suddenly remembered where his room was and strode forwards without Mark guiding him. Mark followed. It was very strange to be inside the dorms with his Spider-man suit on. He kind of felt like an imposter or creep. 

Donghyuck knocked on the door for some weird reason, and Mark was contemplating quickly swinging over to Jaemin’s house to pick up Donghyuck’s stuff + keys when Donghyuck violently wrenched on the door knob and the door _opened_. 

“Ta-da!” Donghyuck beamed. 

“Okay...” Mark stepped into his own room after Donghyuck. It felt like some surreal dream. 

It was just a few seconds after Mark closed the door when it burst open again. 

“I got a call, Donghyuck, are you okay?” It was Renjun, whose brow was furrowed in deep worry. He swept past Mark and when he saw Donghyuck, his face relaxed. He rushed over and shook Donghyuck by the shoulders. Donghyuck was spaced out, eyes unfocused and blank.

“Everyone was looking for you! How’d you even get here-” Renjun caught sight of Mark and promptly froze. “Oh.” 

Mark decided to lie and improvise. “Hey. Uh, are you his roommate? I saw him walking alone on the streets, so I walked him here,” Mark gestered awkwardly to Donghyuck. 

Renjun blinked and whatever spell went over him was gone in a flash. “No, I’m just a friend. Spider-man, is it?” Renjun smiled brightly at him, and knowing what Renjun really was like, Mark was terrified rather than charmed. “I’m a _huge_ fan, it’s a honor meeting you. Thank you so much for taking care of Donghyuck and protecting the city, of course.” 

Mark was pretty sure that Renjun just wanted something from him, but he did sound very sincere with that last sentence. He was about to mumble something in reply when Donghyuck shook out of his daze. 

“Renjun!” Donghyuck launched himself at Renjun with a squeal. Mark stifled a laugh at Renjun’s deadpan expression as he grudgingly let Donghyuck drape himself over him. 

“Renjun’s here, Spider-man’s here! Renjun, look! It’s Spider-man!” Donghyuck pointed at Mark. 

“Yes, I see him, Donghyuck,” Renjun replied, as if he were talking to a small child. 

Mark just stood around awkwardly as Donghyuck babbled and whined nonsensically to Renjun. He really wasn’t sure if he should leave or what... 

“Alright, Donghyuck,” Renjun shoved Donghyuck off his lap in one fluid motion. “I’m going to ca-” 

“_Renjun_,” Donghyuck intoned, voice sounding even higher and whinier than before. He turned to Renjun and _pouted_, eyes large and... _was he tearing up? Uh oh_, Mark thought. 

“D-did you, did you know that Spider-man doesn’t get paid?!” Donghyuck wailed. 

“He- what-” Renjun stared at Donghyuck as he started to cry. “Wh-why the fuck are you crying?” 

“_Spider-man doesn’t get paid!_” Donghyuck emphasized. “He does Spider-man things for _freeeee!_” 

At this point, Renjun had his phone out and was recording Donghyuck, who ignored the camera and was still crying his heart out. 

“Oh my god...” Mark uttered, facepalming from Donghyuck’s antics for the second time that night. 

Renjun’s head whipped around and he fixed Mark with an intense stare, as if somehow blaming him for the incident but also sympathizing with him. “What’s new, I’m an asshole.” He pointed at his phone, which was still recording. Donghyuck was still crying. “This, this is for blackmail material.” 

The whole scene was kind of a trainwreck, but Mark couldn’t look away. In fact, Donghyuck’s crying face was kinda cute... His face was a little red and his eyes were all sparkly with his tears and he looked like a sad puppy. Mark felt his heart melt a little at the sight. 

“Okay, okay, I have like five minutes of Donghyuck crying content which is like five minutes too long,” Renjun said, finishing up his recording. He looked simultaneously annoyed and satisfied. Donghyuck had stopped crying and was sniffling forlornly. Renjun turned to Mark. 

“I don’t know why you’re still here, but I literally cannot stand being in the same room as him anymore, so I’m going to call his actual roommate to get his ass over here,” he said. 

“Oh! Alright then, I just wanted to make sure... Donghyuck was okay,” Mark said. He quickly walked over to the window as Renjun started dialling up. “Have a good night!” 

Mark had opened the windows and was out the second Renjun put his phone to his ear. Maybe it was kind of rude, but Mark wasn’t sure if he put his phone on silent or not and he didn’t want to explain why Spider-man’s phone was ringing when Renjun was calling Mark. 

Mark’s phone hadn’t made a sound yet, so he concluded with relief that it was on silent. He landed on a roof a few buildings away and picked up. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey Mark, your boyf- _roommate_ is currently drunk and I don’t want to babysit him any longer,” Renjun said, sounding irritated. Mark could hear Donghyuck singing in the background. 

“Where are you guys again?” Mark asked, feigning ignorance.

“In your room. Can you make it? Where are you?” 

“Uh, I was at the chemistry labs. I’m finished and walking over right now, I’ll be there soon.” 

Renjun hummed and hung up with a quick “bye”. Mark mentally congratulated himself for the amazing lie he concocted. He swung over to the tree he had stashed his backpack in earlier that night. It was kind of difficult changing out of the skin-tight suit and into his normal clothes in a tree, but Mark managed. He smoothed down his checkered shirt and ran a hand through his hair, displacing a few leaves that had managed to find their way there. 

“Alright, alright, I look fine- I’m- just gonna go,” Mark muttered, fiddling with the webshooters on his wrists. To maximize speed he was going to swing over Spider-man style, but with his normal clothes. He shoved his suit into his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and jumped.

Mark stood in front of his door, breathing heavily. 

“Hey,” he greeted as the door opened and revealed a disgruntled-looking Renjun. 

“You look... ruffled,” Renjun commented dryly. Mark’s hand leapt up to pat down his hair, which was sticking up all over the place. 

“Well yeah, I tried to get here as fast as I could.”

“Okay, then, I’m just gonna leave now. Good luck with _him_.” Renjun clasped Mark’s shoulder and fast walked down the hallway, as if he couldn't wait to get out of the place.

Mark curiously peeked into the room. Donghyuck was on the floor, slumped against his bed unconscious. Renjun had probably moved him there after he had passed out. 

Donghyuck’s caramel-brown hair was messy and his bangs were sweaty, plastered against his forehead. He was drooling a little as well. _Was this love?_ Mark sighed and smiled contentedly, moving closer. He hefted Donghyuck up and tucked him into bed again. 

Mark scribbled out a note for Donghyuck and put a cup of water with it on his desk. He was feeling a bit sleepy himself, yawning widely as he made his way to his own bed. Mark scrubbed a hand against his face tiredly. He started unbuttoning his shirt to change into his pyjamas, and his trousers were halfway down his thighs when he heard a small moan from the other side of the room. Mark’s head snapped around even as he pulled his shirt down to try and cover himself. 

“Spider-man....” Donghyuck turned over in bed. Soft, sleepy words continued falling out of his mouth. “Thank.... him...” 

It seemed like Donghyuck was sleep talking, and Mark continued undressing and putting on his pyjamas. 

“Marrrrkk...”

Mark was instantly alert the moment his name left Donghyuck’s lips. 

“I think... I like h-... love him.” 

Donghyuck’s eyes were still closed, but there was a little smile on his lips. 

Mark stood frozen in spot, screaming internally. He collapsed into his bed. _What the heck what the heck what the heck is this really happening?_ The whole night felt like a fever dream. Did Donghyuck really like him or was it just a sleep talking thing? If he did, that was fabulous, really, but Mark was kind of terrified. It felt like the beginning to something big, something new, and Mark wasn’t sure if he wanted to fall over the edge yet. Despite all the nights of crime-fighting and dodging bullets, Mark was still a coward. He could feel the panic rise again until it felt like something was pressing down on his chest. Slowly, Mark breathed in and out. It was fine. He just needed some time to figure things out. Finally calmed down, Mark set an alarm for early morning, planning on escaping to LA for the weekend to clear his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow so this was a longer chapter than usual omg (btw the final chapter is going to be pretty long too)  
also i know this chapter is Mark POV but i just want to mention that Donghyuck has sighed like 7 times already throughout the story asdfgkjhgsdfjvkl


	8. Donghyuck - chef boyardee lends a helping hand (revelations)

When Donghyuck had moved here, they said Irvine was the safest city in America. Crime was nearly nonexistent, so anyone could walk around in the middle of the night with little to no worry. And it was apparently even safer in their college town. 

It was around 12:30 AM on a Tuesday night, and Donghyuck was walking back to his dorm building from Jaemin’s building. Donghyuck couldn’t remember what they were doing in Jaemin’s room, but it sure wasn’t homework. In fact, Jaemin had on those colorful disco lights from last Friday’s party. Oh, and Jeno was there too. No lacrosse practice on Tuesdays, according to him. While Donghyuck left, Jeno decided to sleep over. Which was cool, nothing wrong with that, except Donghyuck was pretty sure that Jaemin only had one bed. 

The streets outside were quiet, illuminated by the stark, bright streetlights. Not many people were out late on a Tuesday night, but Donghyuck did see a few shadowy figures dart to and fro dorm buildings. RAs really did not give a single fuck. 

Halfway to his dorm, Donghyuck decided to take a turn and get a late night snack from the grocery store. It was even brighter in the store, and Donghyuck squinted, trying to adjust his eyes to the artificial fluorescent lighting. He somehow ended up in the soup aisle, staring at long rows of canned food. He was strangely craving Chef Boyardee ravioli, so he took two beef ravioli cans, and a few more beefaroni and spaghetti and meatball ones for good measure. The night shift cashier was crying as she scanned his items, and while he didn’t know if she had a bad day or just had something against Chef Boyardee, Donghyuck fidgeted uncomfortably and asked if she was okay.

“These three people just came in and... I think they wanted to rob the store!” she wailed. 

“Whoa, did you call the police?” 

“N-no, I’m not sure what happened but they... they just went outside.” 

“Are you hurt? Did they take anything?” 

“No, I’m fine and they didn’t take anything. I don’t know what happened. I was... in shock. I think they had guns,” she sniffled tearfully. 

Donghyuck carefully put his cans one by one into a plastic bag (sue him, he usually had a grocery tote bag, this was a one-time thing). 

“Well, I gotta go, but stay safe,” he said sincerely. “I think you should call the police just in case though.”

The girl nodded in agreement, hand reaching towards her phone, and bid him a good night. 

Donghyuck swung his bag of Chef Boyardee cans back and forth absentmindedly as he continued on his way. A lot of the stores on the block were closed, so his surroundings were kind of (very) dark compared to the more brightly-lit main street. Donghyuck took a weird turn somewhere and was about to backtrack when he heard shouting from the alley to his left. 

And instead of running from the noise like a sane person, Donghyuck walked _towards_ it. He curiously peeked around the corner and froze immediately. There was some sort of fight going on, and although it was dark as fuck, he could make out three figures, no, four, and the fourth one was jumping around on the walls...? There was only one person on the West Coast who could leap off walls, and that was Spider-man. Squinting harder, Donghyuck could see the tell-tale red and blue of Spider-man’s suit. Shit, the three people must have been the wannabe robbers the cashier was talking about earlier.

The shouting escalated and suddenly there was a very loud gunshot. Spider-man jumped in surprise and clutched at his head while diving to the side. With a muffled yell, he fell to the ground. Donghyuck gasped audibly before slapping a hand over his mouth to keep quiet. _No no no no no, did he get shot?!_ As much as he was concerned for Spider-man, he definitely did not want to intervene now. The freaking bad guys had guns and all Donghyuck had was... a plastic bag with canned food. 

“Looks like you missed,” one of the thugs said, circling around the body. 

“Yeah, but it still took the fucker out.” 

_Okay... So Spider-man dodged the bullet, but why did he fall?_ Donghyuck nerves were lit up, body tense, as he leaned in to hear the men. One of them violently kicked at Spider-man’s fallen body, and Donghyuck had to stifle another gasp. 

“Hey, who’s this dude anyway?” one of them sneered. 

“Probably some lame kid... hey! Let’s take the mask off!” another suggested. 

_Fuck fuck fuck_, Donghyuck thought desperately. He had always been curious about Spider-man’s secret identity, but he wasn’t planning on finding out this way. Someone kicked Spider-man’s side again, harder this time, and Donghyuck could hear a faint groan from the body. Donghyuck winced. He stood rooted to the spot, blood rushing to his head as adrenaline pumped through his veins. Even if the girl had called the police, it had only been a few minutes. They would not make it in time. The hand of one of the thugs was reaching towards the edge of Spider-man’s mask when Donghyuck made his decision. He thrust his hand down into his bag of cans and stepped out of his hiding spot to face the three men. 

Donghyuck did not have good aim, but he tried. The can missed and hit the ground next to Spider-man with a clunk, rolling slowly to a stop. 

“What the-” 

_Shit!_

One of the bad guys started turning around, and this time Donghyuck’s can hit its mark. 

The thug kneeling next to Spider-man stood up. They were all turning his way. Donghyuck reached for another can. He heard the click of the gun and froze. _Shit. I forgot about the gun._

“Who the fuck’s there!” 

Donghyuck’s legs were shaking. Now was a good time to _fucking run_. But just like with the car, Donghyuck found that he couldn’t move. He squeezed his eyes shut and hoped it was too dark for the thugs to aim accurately. 

_Fwip!_

Donghyuck opened his eyes to see a string of silvery white latch onto one of the men, pulling off a small black object and flinging it away high into the air. _The hand-gun_. It landed somewhere in the dark with a clatter.

“Hey! It’s me you should be worried about!” 

The thugs turned their attention to the person behind them, who was still getting to his feet. Donghyuck breathed a small sigh of relief. Spider-man was back in action, and maybe he could get through the night without fucking dying. 

The four of them (five, if Donghyuck included himself) were in a stand-off. The three thugs were scowling and muttering angrily among themselves. Spider-man paused and looked directly at Donghyuck, who was still dumbly standing there with his bag of cans. Even at a fair distance apart in the dark, Donghyuck could see the whites of Spiderman’s mask eyes widen, as if in surprise. 

“Donghyuck!?” 

_What the fuck, Spider-man just outed_ my _identity to the bad guys, wait- I know that voice-_ And all of a sudden Donghyuck couldn’t care less if the bad guys knew his name or not. Spider-man was _Mark Lee_. _Mark Lee was Spider-man_. Was he surprised? He had always suspected, but really this was- 

“M-” Donghyuck stopped himself from shouting back Mark’s name. Nope, bad idea, this entire thing was a bad idea- 

The bad guys were looking back and forth between him and Spider-man (no, it was _Mark_ now), and in some unspoken agreement, two of them lunged at Mark while one of them ran towards Donghyuck. And Donghyuck totally did not scream or anything. 

Mark hit the two thugs with a stream of webbing, and with one fluid movement, flipped over next to Donghyuck. The man coming at Donghyuck stopped in his tracks and then wildly turned to watch his two friends struggling to remove the webbing. With Spider-man in front of him now (or Mark, whatever!), Donghyuck actually felt safer. Spider-man wouldn’t let him die. Mark Lee wouldn’t either, he was a nice dude. 

Mark shot a few more webs at the three of them and then rushed over in front of Donghyuck. He grabbed Donghyuck firmly by the shoulders. 

“Are you okay?” he just about shouted, his voice slightly distorted by the fabric of the mask but still sounding like Mark. 

And suddenly, with the two of them staring at each other, in their own little world, having a Moment, Donghyuck felt a rush of anger through all the adrenaline. He thought about Mark collapsing from the gunshot from earlier and all the panic and worry he felt during that moment. He thought about all the times Mark turned up asking for band-aids, arms and legs covered with cuts. _How dare he? How dare Mark endanger himself being Spider-man? How dare he be so selfless? His stupid, dumb, clumsy roommate-_

“I’m fine, I’m fine! But what about you? What happened earlier with you falling? We’re going to talk about this later at the dorms, _roomie_,” Donghyuck hissed at Mark. Mark just stared at him speechlessly, or at least Donghyuck thought he did because it was hard to read his face with the mask fucking covering it. 

“I’m gonna kill you fuckers!” one of the men roared at them. It seemed like he had gotten his arms free of the webbing and he was waving something in the air... another gun. Yep. 

The other two started shouting more threats and insults as the one with the gun lowered it to point directly at Donghyuck and Mark. Donghyuck may or may not have whimpered. 

“Hyuck! Get behind me!”

Then Mark was pushing Donghyuck behind him and Donghyuck died a little inside because it was all just so horribly cliche. He could hear the click of the gun as the safety went off... but before it could fire Mark shot a web to wrap around and hurl it out of sight. He shot more webs at the attackers. 

“Run! Go go _go!_” he shouted over his shoulder at Donghyuck.

Donghyuck promptly dropped his bag and ran away from the scene as fast as possible. 

Everything was flashes of dark and light, and it was a miracle Donghyuck didn’t trip because he could barely see anything, or knew where the hell he was going. When it felt like his lungs were on fire and his legs were burning, Donghyuck finally stumbled to a stop. He gasped for air and surveyed his surroundings. 

Okay... He could work with this. He was in college town again but near the university, and the arts building he walked by a lot to get to class was right next to him. Donghyuck had no clue how he ended up where he was, but he quickly took on a brisk pace and jogged/fast-walked the way back to his dorm (finally). 

The exhaustion finally settled in, and along with it, worry for Mark. While he couldn’t possibly have helped Mark back there and would have hindered him instead if he’d stayed, Donghyuck did feel remorse at leaving Mark behind to fend for himself. Well, Mark had been fending for himself as Spider-man for a very long time. Donghyuck was going to have a very long discussion with him about safety and whatnot when Mark got back. (_If_ he got back, an unhelpful part of his brain supplied.)

Back in his room, Donghyuck changed into more comfortable clothing while he waited. His skinny jeans were a bit harder to peel off from all the sweat clinging to his skin (thanks to his frankly horrible night), and he didn’t even know how he ran as fast as he did in those jeans. Forrest Gump who? Donghyuck tugged on sweatpants and a soft T-shirt and sank into his wonderful, wonderful bed.  
He fished his phone out of the pocket of his skinny jeans and stared at the notifications popping up on it, texting Jaemin a quick “I’m back safe” text. It wouldn’t hurt Jaemin if he didn’t know about what really transpired tonight. Donghyuck’s eyes were kinda hurting from the screen light so he turned it off and stared at the ceiling, feeling his anxiety rise and roar like a wave, crashing and falling over and over again as the time went by. At least now his cravings for food were gone. 

\--

The window opened a while later, and Mark climbed into the room.

Donghyuck almost fell off the bed.

Mark was wearing a dark hoodie and had some cuts on his face, but man if he didn’t look more attractive than ever. He was also holding up a bag. 

“Hey... I got some ravioli?” and he held up a dented ravioli can. 

Donghyuck just sighed. “So, you’re fucking Spider-man.”

Mark squinted at him and struggled internally with something before speaking. “No, I _am_ Spider-man.”

“That’s what I meant.”

“Oh.” 

Donghyuck swooped in before Mark could talk anymore. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt after I left? Also what happened before, when they... shot at you? You collapsed or something.” 

Mark looked slightly overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. “I- I’m fine. Someone already called the police so they came pretty quickly and took the criminals away. And... uh, I have sensitive hearing so the gunshot was really loud and disoriented me. I’m okay now though.” He tossed the dented can onto the bed next to Donghyuck.

Donghyuck let out a breath of relief. “Wait. Does this usually happen when you encounter guns?” he asked, breath catching again. _Oh my god, he could seriously get hurt... And Spider-man patrols so often too..._

“Usually I take the gun out of the equation before they fire it. I think I was just a bit distracted today,” Mark shrugged, like getting shot at on a regular basis was a normal thing. 

“What the fuck? The three men today, they were going to take your mask off! Your secret identity would’ve been blown!” 

“Well they didn’t, so it’s okay.” 

“It’s not okay!” Donghyuck whisper-screamed. 

“Yeah, it’s not okay!” Mark suddenly shouted. 

“What?”

“You could’ve gotten hurt! What were _you_ thinking, trying to take on those people with _soup cans_?!”

“I couldn’t just stand there as they hurt you!” 

“I would have been fine! I’ve been in these situations before!”

They glared at each other. Mark’s eyes looked bright and fierce, but the lines of his face showed a deep weariness. Donghyuck was struck by the situation, Mark having to go through the whole thing alone, no one helping him when he got injured or tired. 

“Look, I just... I just think that... you’ve been doing this whole Spider-man thing alone, right? You look tired, Mark,” Donghyuck said gently. “Maybe I can’t do it, but I think you need a better support system.” 

Mark pursed his lips, but his eyes softened. “I do have a support system. Doyoung- Professor Kim, he’s head of the chemistry department here, he actually helps me with my Spider-man stuff.”

Donghyuck’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “And he knows you get hurt all the time.” 

Mark winced. “Uh, well... not all the time. Fine, I’ll talk to him more,” he conceded. 

“I have more questions.” 

Mark breathed in, then out. “Okay, shoot.” 

Donghyuck mimed shooting a web, lazily pointing an upturned wrist at Mark. “Where’d you get your suit?”

“Of all the things you could ask, that first?”

“Hey. I’m the one asking the questions.”

“Okay, okay. Doyoung knows someone, and that person makes my suit. He also gives me access to the chemicals I need to make my web fluid.”

“Wait, so that stuff doesn’t come out of you?”

“Yeah, my body doesn’t produce any webbing material, though I can stick to walls on my own.”

“How’d you get your... powers?”

“Radioactive spider bite,” Mark sighed. “High school field trip gone wrong.” 

“Holy shit, you’ve been doing this Spider-man gig since high school?”

“Yep, but it really isn’t-” 

Donghyuck cut Mark off with a look. He could feel his panic and horror grow. Not only was Mark getting hurt all the time, he had been getting hurt _since high school_. The only redeemable aspect was that at least _someone_ had been helping out Mark. 

Donghyuck couldn’t keep the worry from bleeding into his voice. “So... Professor Kim knows your secret identity?” 

“Yeah, I’ve known him for a while. He was the one who helped me through everything after all.” 

Donghyuck let out a deep sigh and leaned back. “Okay, I can live with that.” 

Mark looked at Donghyuck shyly from under his lashes. He looked kind of abashed. “Speaking of secret identities... Did you know? Like, before tonight?” 

“I had my suspicions, and Renjun was getting really tired of them.” 

Mark sighed. “I guess I kinda saw this coming.” 

“Oh really?” 

“Yep, and I’m pretty sure Renjun knows something’s up with me. But like... are you thinking of blackmailing me?”

“What? That’s the furthest thing on my mind. Except Renjun would. So let’s not tell Renjun,” Donghyuck said. “Who else knows besides Professor Kim?”

“Chenle and Jisung. I think,” Mark added. 

“You think? They’re like super creepy little nuggets. It could be very dangerous if they knew.” 

“I mean, I did their fortune telling experiment thing, and they know a heck lot of stuff about me that I haven’t told anyone.” 

“Like what?”

“They kinda hinted at Spider-man related stuff. Like they said I was going to save the love of my life.”

The realization hit Mark (and Donghyuck) as soon as he finished the sentence. 

“Oh.” 

Donghyuck felt his face heating up. _Those meddling brats!_ Something was dawning on Mark’s face, and he looked kind of... _happy?_ While Mark was looking like he had just reached enlightenment, Donghyuck rapidly changed the subject because he was inwardly suffocating. 

“Did they pay you?” 

“Oh! Yeah, they did! Like twenty dollars.”

“Dude, I got fifty. You got ripped off.” 

Mark gasped in outrage, but then started giggling. “I mean, I think I got my worth.” 

Donghyuck must have looked confused because Mark elaborated. “You,” he said shyly. His face was blooming red but he was grinning in a besotted way. 

“_Oh._” 

Mark Lee liked _him_? Donghyuck had never felt more inadequate but flattered at the same time in his life. Why would Spider-man, a goddamn actual superhero, like Donghyuck Lee, a dumb college student? 

“But...why?” Donghyuck had to ask. 

Mark just smiled at him, one side of his mouth quirking up into a smirk, stupid curly bangs falling into his stupid pretty eyes. “You’re a good person. And you’re cute,” he said simply. 

Donghyuck stared at Mark with wide eyes, and if it were possible, Mark’s smile grew even fonder.

“And I guess, _hoo_, I’m gonna lay it all out now- Do you want to go out on a date with me some time?” 

Donghyuck’s brain felt like a fizzing can of cola, his brain cells dissolving into little bubbles. “Uhh...” He concentrated very, very hard on Mark’s cheekbones and tried to think about everything that had happened between the two of them, from the first day they met. 

“Okay,” Donghyuck finally said. “Just- one thing.” 

Mark bit his lip and sucked in a breath. “What?” he asked breathlessly. 

“Theoretically,” Donghyuck started, “now that your secret is out and I know you’re Spider-man, you can stop trying to avoid me and take care of yourself more now? And this means theoretically, I’ll actually get to see you around more?”

“Okay yeah, I can do that,” Mark answered in relief. “I promise I’ll make time for you,” he said very solemnly. 

“I’m still not letting you off the hook with your safety and everything though,” Donghyuck warned.

“Yeah. I know,” Mark beamed at him, smile as bright as sunshine. 

When he finally wrapped his arms around Mark and pulled him into a tight hug, Donghyuck felt like his heart was going to burst. 

“Theoretically, if Spider-man was going on his first date with someone, do you think he would like to go to a cafe on Saturday morning?” Donghyuck peered up at Mark’s face. 

“I think that’s a good theory. I’d say yes,” Mark said, bending down and kissing Donghyuck on the lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's finally finished!! thank you to everyone who stuck with this story (haha) and also all of yall who're new to it. i have plans for a sequel with more markhyuck shenanigans and fun now that they're actually together, and hopefully a lot more renjun bc he's one of my favorites to write. please leave any suggestions?  
love everyone, pls get your sleep and stay happy! :)


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